1/2 The Irish Naturalist. December, 



NOTES. 



ZOOLOGY. 



Argynnis asflaia in north-west Wexford. 



On July 31st I took here a faded specimen of the Dark-green Fritillary 

 {Argynnis aglaia), which had evidently flown for a long distance. As we 

 are eighteen miles from the sea, the occurrence is probably a sufficiently 

 far inland one to be worth recording. I have paid attention to the butter- 

 flies of this neighbourhood, without once meeting aglaia, for forty-two 

 years. As long ago as 1878 my local list stood at twenty-three species, 

 and it is only in 19 18 that a twenty-fourth has turned up in this weather- 

 beaten straggler. 



C. B. Moffat. 

 Ballyhyland, Co, Wexford. 



New Locality for Thecla betulae. 



On August 13, I saw (but unluckily did not capture) a fresh-looking 

 female specimen of the Brown Hairstreak Butterfly {Thecla betulcs) in a 

 bit of wooded ground in the Urrin valley, near Kiltrea. The spot is only 

 about a mile from the present bounds of old Killoughram Wood, which 

 has long been known to me as a haunt of this rare butterfly ; but as 

 the character of the vegetation is precisely similar, and the once extensive 

 forest of Killoughram must originally have embraced the whole of the 

 Urrin valley, the presence of the Brown Hairstreak Butterfly — a very 

 sedentary insect — at Kiltrea may probably be a case of survival. I 

 had never before seen the insect anywhere outside Killoughram Wood, 

 where of late years, from unexplained causes, it has been quite scarce. 



C. B. Moffat. 

 Ballyhyland, Co. Wexford. 



Abnormal Caterpillar of Choerocampa. 



It may, perhaps, be worth recording that early in August I got a 

 caterpillar of the Elephant Hawk-Moth {Choerocampa elpenor), remarkable 

 in having three pairs of well-defined eye-markings, showing as six eyes 

 when the sphynx attitude is assumed, and remarkable also in having the 

 caudal horn reduced to little more than a rvidiment. A few days later 

 the caterpillar begin to spin its cocoon, preparatory to pupation. 



W. E. Hart. 

 Kilderry, Co. Donegal. 



